Various kinds of electrolytes are used for electrochemical devices, frequently used recently, such as lithium secondary batteries, electrolytic condensers, electric double-layer capacitors, electrochromic display devices, and dye-sensitized solar cells that are currently studied in various ways for further usage, and the importance on electrolytes is increased day by day.
In recent, the most frequently used electrolytes are non-aqueous electrolytes obtained by dissolving ionizable salts such as lithium salt in organic solvents such as ethylene carbonate, propylene carbonate, dimethoxy ethane, γ-butyrolactone (GBL), N,N-dimethyl formamide, tetrahydrofurane and acetonitrile.
However, the organic solvents used for such a non-aqueous electrolyte exhibit easy leakage due to low viscosity and they may be vaporized due to very strong volatility. Also, these organic solvents exhibit strong flammability. Accordingly, an electrochemical device having such an organic solvent shows problems in durability and stability.
In order to solve this problem, there has been proposed a method of using an imidazolium-based or ammonium-based ionic liquid as an electrolyte of a lithium secondary battery. However, such an ionic liquid may be reduced at a higher voltage than lithium ions in an anode, or imidazolium or ammonium cations may be inserted into the anode together with lithium ion, which rather deteriorates the battery performance.
Meanwhile, Korean Patent Registration No. 10-751203 and Korean Laid-open Patent Publication No. 10-2007-85575 disclose eutectic mixtures of lithium and amide compound such as acetamide, urea, methylurea, caprolactam, valerolactam, trifluoroacetamide, carbamate and formamide, expressed as predetermined chemistry figures, as an electrolyte. Such eutectic mixtures exhibit high thermal and chemical stabilities as well as relatively wide electrochemical window, so they solve the problems such as evaporation or ignition of electrolyte caused by the usage of the existing organic solvents.
Accordingly, the development of various eutectic mixtures as electrolyte is accelerated.